They have had only occasional success in breeding on the Long Water because of the many gulls, and do much better on the more sheltered Regent's Canal, which begins nearby at Paddington. Probably this population originally comes from the offspring of a captive collection at Regent's Park.
The hopeless pair of Egyptian Geese were at the Henry Moore sculpture with just one survivor from a doubtless much larger brood. In twelve years in the park they have not raised a single gosling, while the other Egyptians have been doing very well.
The Coot on an equally doomed nest on the wire baskets near the bridge had built up the nest substantially.
If a strong east wind doesn't wash it away, the chicks will be eaten by gulls as soon as their mother leaves the nest for a moment. There is a post a few feet away where a gull can stand and wait for this moment.
A Mute Swan had finished preening, and flapped its enormous wings near the Lido.
The Kingfisher was also preening on the usual branch of the dead willow near the Italian Garden.
The new turf at the bottom of the Parade Ground was covered with workmen and tractors, so there was no chance of seeing an interesting bird on it. With luck they will be back when things quieten down. Meanwhile, here is a Pied Wagtail on its traditional run along the edge of the Serpentine.
A Starling at the Dell restaurant was looking splendid during a sunny spell.
Another picture by Tom: a dramatic shot of a pair of Nuthatches coming down to take food at the leaf yard.
A pair of Goldcrests were leaping around in the trees near Peter Pan.
Both Coal Tits came out when we went past the bridge.
There was a Treecreeper in the shrubbery near the Henry Moore.
One of the insect traps here had a Rose-Ringed Parakeet on it. It probably thought the thing was a bird feeder, and was pulling off the duck tape to open it up.
The trap would have been empty, as the bottle of alcohol at the bottom, which both lures and kills insects, has been removed.
The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was looking down from her tree.
Poor goslings. Doomed from their very conception on account of having two very foolish parents :-( How can they get on with life, I wonder, being so completely devoid of foresight.
ReplyDeleteYou may remember that they have one surviving descendant, a gosling that was left to wander off on its own, was found and rescued by a couple of girls, and was given to a family in Hyde Park which adopted it. It was blonde like its mother, so it could be distinguished among the brood, and certainly grew up before it merged into the mass of adults and became unidentifiable (there are lots of Egyptians with pale heads here, I think all female).
DeleteOh yes! A survivor against all odds.
ReplyDeleteWhy would all the blond geese be female? Neoteny, like in humans?
A mutated gene on the Z chromosome. Birds' sex chromosomes, Z and W, the opposite way round from mammals' X and Y. Male birds are ZZ; females are ZW, and a defect in Z is not masked by a normal copy as it would be in a male. That is also why almost all 'Polish' swans are female.
DeleteShame about the moorhen, do the males not share incubation here or can they just not sustain it regardless? Mandarins have also returned to breed a few times at the Lily Pond in Golders Hill, decades after its captive collection that contained both Mandarins and Carolinas got ruined by foxes. Don't know if any young have survived there, though. Jim n.L.
ReplyDeleteMoorhen? Coot?
DeleteI'm sure that Mandarin drakes play no part in incubation. At this time they form all-male clubs, like Mallards, and roister about while their long-suffering mates do all the work. Mandarins do have an advantage over most native ducks in nesting in trees, so that their broods are quite secure till they jump out. After that, it's the usual story with gulls, crows and rats.
I mean the coot, silly me. Jim
DeleteLOVE the Starling photo with its bright yellow beak...stunning!!!
ReplyDeleteAll you have to do is to stand directly up-sun from them, so your shadow almost falls on the bird. Then their wonderful brocade feathers really light up.
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